'It is every Catholic's duty to resist gay marriage': Senior bishops step up battle against 'profoundly radical step' with letter to worshippers

The Catholic Church today told worshippers they have a ‘duty’ to resist Government plans on gay marriage.

A letter from two senior archbishops, read in 2,500 parish churches during Mass, argued changes would reduce the significance of marriage.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and Archbishop Peter Smith, the Archbishop of Southwark, called on people to 'do all we can to ensure that the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations’.

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The letter says the reform would undermine the role of a mother and father to produce and raise children, and focus only on the commitment between two people.

The Archbishops’ letter argues:
‘Changing the legal definition of marriage would be a profoundly radical
step. Its consequences should be taken seriously now.

‘The law helps to shape and form
social and cultural values. A change in the law would gradually and
inevitably transform society's understanding of the purpose of marriage.

‘It would reduce it just to the
commitment of the two people involved. There would be no recognition of
the complementarity of male and female or that marriage is intended for
the procreation and education of children.

‘We have a duty to married people
today, and to those who come after us, to do all we can to ensure that
the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations.’

The letter argues that the roots of
marriage lie in human nature and the pattern of ‘complementarity and
fertility’ in the union are affirmed by many other religious traditions.

Demonstration: The issue of the church's opposition to gay marriages has provoked vocal protests from campaigners

It says: ‘Neither the Church nor the State has the power to change this fundamental understanding of marriage itself.’

And it insists that same-sex couples are not unfairly discriminated against under the current law.

‘The reasons given by our government
for wanting to change the definition of marriage are those of equality
and discrimination,’ the Archbishops write.

‘But our present law does not
discriminate unjustly when it requires both a man and a woman for
marriage. It simply recognises and protects the distinctive nature of
marriage.’

Prime Minister David Cameron's
official spokesman has said in response: ‘The Government has made clear
its commitment to equality. We believe people should have the option of
civil marriage, irrespective of sexual orientation.’

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of
gay rights organisation Stonewall, said: ‘At a time when 50,000 families
in Britain are homeless and a billion people across the world live on
less than a dollar a day, it's extraordinary that Archbishops are
worrying about the family arrangements of a few thousands gay people.

Commitment: Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said he found the church's stance 'bizarre'

‘We assume that Roman Catholic
congregations will take as much notice of the instruction to marginalise
gay people's relationships as they do of the regular instruction they
receive not to use birth control.’

Human rights campaigner Peter
Tatchell echoed Mr Summerskill's comments, branding it ‘bizarre’ that
the Archbishops had chosen to mobilise their congregations against gay
marriage ‘given the many grave problems in the world’ like war, hunger
and poverty.

‘It shows a perverse sense of moral
priorities,’ he said. ‘The Archbishops are preaching a gospel of
division and discrimination.

‘They want the law to discriminate against gay couples. Discrimination is not a Christian value.

‘If churches value love and commitment, why are they opposing gay couples showing their love and commitment by getting married?’

Mr Tatchell, who is head of the Equal
Love campaign against the bans on gay marriages and heterosexual civil
partnerships, argued that opening up marriage to same-sex couples did
not detract ‘one iota’ from heterosexual marriage.

‘If the Archbishops support the
institution of marriage, surely they should welcome the fact that many
lesbian and gay couples want to get married?’ he said.

‘Catholics are entitled to believe
that same-sex marriages are wrong, but they are not entitled to demand
that their rejection of gay marriages should be imposed on the rest of
society and enforced by law.’

The letter was worded in less
incendiary terms than those used by the head of the Catholic Church in
Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who earlier this week described
marriage between same-sex couples as an ‘aberration’ that would lead
society even further into ‘immorality’.